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- from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!

Monday, December 17, 2012

I don't see what's the problem. It's been a Democrat state for a while now. But come January there'll be no real legislative constraints. They'll be able to do what they want, which will be finding more and more ways to levy taxes on an overburdened populace. It's going to be interesting to see if Californians hold up against the onslaught.

LOS ANGELES — The Democratic Party has controlled the California Legislature for a nearly unbroken stretch of 42 years. Yet control goes only so far: it takes two-thirds of the Legislature to enact a host of important legislation in this state, meaning that even the diminished Republican Party has been able to easily frustrate Democratic ambitions.

But with a swell of electoral victories in November, the Democratic Party has now crossed that boundary and controls two-thirds of both the Senate and the Assembly, giving it the kind of unfettered power that no party has had here for 80 years.

This does not appear to be a passing advantage. Even Republicans say that changes in electoral demographics mean that, with the exception of a few brief lapses caused by vacancies, Democrats could hold a supermajority at least through the end of the decade.

Yet in the “be careful what you wish for” department, Democrats are beginning to confront the struggles and complications that come with being in charge of the store. This authority came at least two years earlier than most Democrats had projected. And it is unleashing years of pent-up Democratic desires — to roll back spending cuts, approve a bond issue to rebuild the state’s water system, amend the state’s tax code, revamp California’s governance system — that had been largely checked by the Republican minority.

At the same time, it is stirring concerns from Democrats, among them Gov. Jerry Brown, that the situation may inspire an overreach that could make the party’s reign brief. By contrast, some Democrats argue that handled correctly, the next two years could provide an opportunity to lock in long-term control.

I don't think the "restraint" forces will have much of a chance. When has restraint been the order of the day in the past? Politics come January is going to be all about ways to change the state's tax system, to find more ways to confiscate the people's money and fund a bloated, tyrannical state bureaucratic monster. Meanwhile, California will continue to lag in all the leading indicators of economic and demographic well-being. The West Coast dystopia.